CS101: Classical Horary Astrology

Primary Instructor: J. Lee LehmanThis course can be used as an elective for the diploma. This is not an introductory course. CS100 Essential Dignities Workshop or equivalent is required.

You may have used natal astrology to tell that you are likely to move this year - but is the house you just looked at a good match? Your client's chart may show relationship issues, but is the guy she just met last weekend a prince or a frog? And what if your cousin's birth time is uncertain - he still has questions! This course will give you the depth and experience to answer all of these questions - and many more!

This 10-week course includes a coursesite with weekly assignments, discussion forum and resource materials along with 90 minutes of on-line questions and exercises per week, on Tuesdays evenings from 5:30-7:00 pm Pacific / 8:30 - 10:00 pm Eastern

Text Copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 J. Lee Lehman:

Horary astrology is a part of one of the oldest branches of divination: that of asking questions. Normally, when we use the word horary, we refer specifically to the particular sets of rules for interpreting an astrological chart drawn for the moment of asking a question, a type of astrology also known under the Sanskrit name prashna. However, let us not forget that the urge of humans to obtain answers to important questions by divining, or asking the gods, is much older. Horary astrology in a sense is merely a technology for reading that divine answer, like the I Ching, or Tarot.

In Shang Dynasty China, the king would ask questions frequently, often involving the question of what sacrifice the gods wanted. In ancient Babylonia, all manner of omens – really, any deviation from business as usual, whether unusual birth, unusual weather, or unusual bird formations, as an opportunity to divine the message from the gods. As astrology gradually gained primacy as a method for reading the heavens, and hence the place of the gods, so it later became a preferred means of similarly reading the gods’ messages.

We all ask questions. Some of these questions are more important than others. What makes a question important? It's not how much money is on the line, or whether you really need to move. It's whether you care more about knowing the answer than about what the answer is. Suppose you're driving to work, and thinking about that new person you interviewed yesterday. You could be thinking, "I wonder if Jane would be good for the job." Or you could be very impressed with Jane, and convinced that she could really help you with that next big project, so you say, "Will my company hire Jane?" The first is not a horary question, while the second one may be. A horary question is one in which the person asking the question really wants to know the answer. It is this serious interest which allows a horary astrologer to interpret the moment when the question is asked. Casual curiosity is not enough.